Call for State to recognise existence of babies who die before 28 weeks of pregnancy

A Bill launched in the Seanad to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week aims to establish a non-statutory register to recognise the existence of babies who die before reaching certain pregnancy milestones.

Fine Gael Seanad leader Regina Doherty, who sponsored the Bill with her party colleague Senator Mary Seery Kearney, said the State “does not recognise the existence of a large number of the babies who are lost during pregnancy”.

She wants a non-statutory register established “that allows these births, these lives and these losses to be recognised by the State in order that families can grieve, move on and live with the devastating loss without the obstruction of the State not recognising the citizen”.

Ms Doherty highlighted the campaign of Caroline and Martin Smith, who sat in the visitors’ gallery. Their son Stephen, she said, “was born seven years ago next week. He was 420g at birth and Caroline was 20 weeks and two days pregnant”.

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines stillbirth as the death of a baby after 28 weeks or pregnancy but before or during birth, at which point a baby is deemed to have existed.

“Despite Caroline giving birth to Stephen, the State does not see him as ever having existed because he did not reach the milestones as set down in the stillbirth definition by the WHO,” Ms Doherty said.

Ms Doherty said the couple had worked tirelessly to address an issue that has hurt them and so many other families, “the State refusing to recognise their loss and the member of their family who is much loved, their son Stephen”.

Baby Loss Awareness Week, now in its 20th year, aims to raise awareness of issues affecting those experiencing pregnancy and baby loss.

Ms Seery Kearney said she hoped that Baby Stephen “is the first to be registered” under the Civil Registration (Amendment) (Certificate of Life) Bill.

“He can lead the way for so many other babies who need to be recognised,” she said.

The Dublin-based Senator said the non-statutory register would provide a “certificate of life” to people who have experienced loss and it would be “extremely important”.

She said that “from the moment the two lines appear on a pregnancy test, a lifetime is lived with that baby”.

Outlining her own experience, Ms Seery Kearney said it was 14 years since her first miscarriage.

“On December 29th every year, we go to the grave of my grandparents because I do not have anywhere else to go,” she said. “There is no other place where my first baby can be remembered. We lay a wreath and remember, as a family, the lifetime that was lived in that period of time our baby was due and was a member of our family and continues to be a member of our family.”